Pick up something today.

It can be anything. Just pick up one thing that’s acting as clutter and put it away. Do it right now. I’ll wait.

That’s the first step in getting rid of clutter, but it’s one that seems very difficult for many people.
It’s basic, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. The first step is often the hardest, because sometimes things seem hopeless. You feel like you’ll never be able to clean up your clutter, that there’s just no point because it’ll just get messy again later.

Just focus on picking up one item and putting it away, instead of trying to do everything at once. Focus on a small thing that you can do right now, instead of trying to tackle the big picture. Starting small means making progress instead of being frozen by fear or doubt.
Go for it!

The next few posts here on Clutter Cubed will be guest posts and filler, since I’m going to be incredibly busy running Con-G (that’s also why this post is late, sorry folks!). Thanks to those who sent in guest posts! I’m still looking for one more if anyone is interested in writing a guest post to appear on Clutter Cubed.

Photo by RedStamp.com

Google Buzz launched yesterday, and I’m not too sure what to make of it at this point.

Social media can get pretty cluttered. You have friends in various social networks, and sometimes you only sign up for a service to follow a few specific people you can’t follow anywhere else. Messy! Google Buzz is supposed to help with that.

So far, I’m seeing some things I like, and some things that I’m pretty iffy about.
I do like the fact that it’s built right into Gmail. I always have Gmail open for one reason or another, so it’s one less program or browser app I have to run.

At the moment, though, it seems weird. Most of the things my friends have posted are things I have already read elsewhere. For example, a few of my friends have added their Twitter feeds. Well, since they are my friends, I already followed them on Twitter (my app of choice is TweetDeck at home and TwitterFox (now Echofon, but I don’t like the new versions so I use an old one) elsewhere), so I’m getting all that info twice. I love ‘em, but I don’t really need to see that twice, ya know?

I’m not too keen when it automatically posts things when you add a new service. Mine auto-posted my latest Flickr photo, which is all well and good, but I haven’t updated my Flickr account since January 18th, so that information is kinda outdated now.

I’ll give it a chance and see what happens. I’m hoping it will grow up into a way to streamline my social media intake; to declutter it and keep it neat and tidy all in one place.

What do you think of it so far? Will it help you to declutter the loads of social media information you receive daily, or is it just yet another way to do the same ol’ thing?

When my friend Dan sent me these pictures of what he’d been up to this weekend, I couldn’t wait to share them here! This post is pretty image-heavy because of this.

He was fed up with his cluttered apartment, and declared war on the clutter Saturday night.

Here’s what his home office looked like before:
The main room (before)

Office decluttering 001, originally uploaded by DanLynch222.

The bookshelf (before)

Office decluttering 002, originally uploaded by DanLynch222.

The floor (before)

Office decluttering 003, originally uploaded by DanLynch222.

The desk top (before)

Office decluttering 004, originally uploaded by DanLynch222.

I encourage you to click the photos to visit the Flickr pages – Dan has left some interesting (and humorous) notes on the photos about what all that stuff is!

After some hard work (and, hopefully, a good night’s sleep), here’s how the office looks now:
The main room (after)

Office decluttering 001a, originally uploaded by DanLynch222.

The bookshelf (after)

Office decluttering 002a, originally uploaded by DanLynch222.

The floor (after)

Office decluttering 003a, originally uploaded by DanLynch222.

The desk top (after)

Office decluttering 004a, originally uploaded by DanLynch222.

Wow, such a difference, isn’t it? Looks like Dan can get some actual work done in there now, not to mention being able to locate important documents when he needs them!
He could probably tame those tangles of cables with some black binder clips, though!

Thank you for sharing this with us, Dan!

If you’d like to share your own decluttering progress, feel free to let me know. I can’t promise to publish every single one (I have no idea what kind of response, if any, this will receive), but I’ll do my best! Perhaps this could become a regular feature in the blog.

As always, you can also add your own photos to the ClutterCubed Flickr pool! I’d love to see them!

I’m kind of behind the times when it comes to Peter Walsh, of Oprah fame (and, as I have been informed in the comments, I watched him on Clean Sweep for a few years and didn’t know who he was. Go me.). I haven’t read his books, and I’ve never seen him on TV. I don’t have cable, and I don’t live in the US so watching shows on Hulu is pretty much out of the question, so I hope you’ll forgive me in this case.

I found this video of Peter last night, and wanted to share it.

If you cannot see the video in your RSS/email, please click through to ClutterCubed to watch it.

This video was brief and to the point, so if this is how Peter usually is, I think I like the guy. Peter says:

Your stuff has to help you create the life you want. And if it doesn’t, the obvious question is: “what’s it doing in your home?”

This goes right along with William Morris‘

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.

These are concepts that we should try to embrace in our quest to get rid of clutter. Why should we keep things that we neither use not like? We shouldn’t.

He also touches on two of the main types of clutter: memory clutter, things that you keep to remind you of past events, and “just in case” clutter (he calls it “I might need it someday” clutter, but mine is shorter ), things that you keep in case you might need them in the future.
I think that in general, keepsakes can be fine, but must be kept in moderation. Do you really need a ceramic mermaid to remind you of your trip to Florida?
This past summer I got rid of a lot of my memory clutter. Most of it was found in a box I hadn’t opened for years. Sure, it was kinda cool to go through it and remember everything on queue, but the items themselves were pretty useless. Some where broken, some where never very nice in the first place. They were not useful, and most were not anywhere close to beautiful. Since I’m still not as ruthless as perhaps I should be, I wrote down a list of all the items and what they reminded me of, then I got rid of the items. It was somewhat of a compromise, since I still own a list that doesn’t really have a proper place in my home, but it’s better than a box full of random trinkets.
My comments about “just in case” clutter turned into a whole post all on their own, so I’ll post them some other time.

Peter goes on to say that all your belongings should help you create the life you want to live, and that sometimes people confuse “more” with “better”, and they keep on acquiring clutter as they chase the life they want. Will your life really be better with 500 channels when you’re too busy to watch the 200 you have now? I think that more of us need to look around at the stuff in our homes and really ask ourselves if they actually enrich our lives, or if they are just cluttering up our lives.

After that it kinda turns into an ad for his book, but the main message of this little video, to strive to only keep items that let you (and actually help you) live the kind of life you want to live, is still sound. If you want a calm, serene, relaxing life, you can’t do it if you cram your house and schedule with everything you’ve wanted to own or do on a whim. You need to take the time to think about purchases before bringing them home, and consider how those objects will help you create the life you want to live.

Are any of you fans of Peter Walsh? Do you have a favourite quote or idea he popularized? I’d love to know!

PS – Would anyone be interested in watching if I recorded a little video post of my own? I’m not sure if people need to see my mug on the Internet any more than it’s already on this site.

I’ve recently taken an interest in personal finance. And by “recently”, I mean “about a year ago now”, but the interest is still going strong. I may as well try to clean up my finances as well as my house, right? On the plus side, decluttering my finances is going to be easy comparatively – there’s hardly anything there! Haha!

I’ve been reading all the personal finance books and blogs I can get my hands on. Blogs are free, and can provide wonderful information, but I have always loved books, and when I’m learning I love to get as many different viewpoints as possible.
I’m proud to say I haven’t bought any books. I’ve borrowed from family, friends and the library.

Photo by Alex Watson

Ok, I lied a little bit, I bought a notebook from the dollar store to jot down notes while I read the finance books I’ve borrowed. Must be a holdover from school; I’ve always liked taking notes. I’m such a geek, but that’s awesome.

I love buying books, so this has actually been fairly difficult for me. I love the library, but I also love owning books. I love seeing them stacked neatly on my shelves, and (oops!) not so neatly once the shelves are filled up.
Every time I move I give away a huge box of books, but I always have more, more more.

When I daydream, my house always has one of those big libraries, with curving shelves that stretch from floor to ceiling and one of those nifty rolling ladders to reach the topmost tomes. *Swoon*

Since I don’t live in a place with a dedicated library, however, I’ve decided that I shouldn’t keep buying books as if I did. Since then, the public library has become my new best friend again. They have almost any book imaginable, and if they don’t have it it, odds are good that they can order it from another branch for you! Sometimes you do have to wait a few weeks if another patron has checked a book out, or if the library needs to order it for you, but it can be worth it for both the money you save and the fact that you’re not cluttering up your home with books you’ll likely only read once.

I’m still a fan of purchasing books when you know you’ll read them multiple times – reference material, old favourites, etc. For one-time reads, however, especially on subjects that I’m learning and taking notes on, I now (again) prefer to get them from the library.

If you regularly go to your local public library, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t visited your local library in a while, go check it out this week! I bet you can find at least one book that you want to read, and you’ll be able to do so without adding to the clutter in your home! If you go, I’d love to hear what books you checked out from the library!

PS – Oh, and check this out. Minimalist blogger Everett Bogue is offering his new ebook The Art of Being Minimalist free to download for only 24 hours*! I got a free copy, and I’m really looking forward to reading this one and will write a review of it once I’m done. You may want to give it a try too.
* = the free download period is over, but you can still buy The Art of Being Minimalist for only $9.95 for the first 1000 people.